Politico described Romney’s speech to Carroll County Republicans as his unofficial kick off ﻿﻿to his New Hampshire campaign. Here are some highlights from the speech.

The President should have learned a lesson from New Hampshire. Anyone who sees the row after row of textile mill buildings in Manchester knows that this state has experienced economic crisis. New Hampshire’s answer was to hold down taxes and red tape, to balance its budget, to keep government efficient, and to keep it small. And the end result was that the state became a capital of innovation and small business.

Senator Obama campaigned hard in New Hampshire but he apparently didn’t like what he saw. He certainly didn’t learn from it. Instead of lowering taxes, he raised them. He wrapped businesses in red tape, he grew government, he borrowed trillions of dollars, and he made it clear that he doesn’t like business people very much.

Mitt Romney stopped by Tommy Thomas’s barber shop in Atlanta on Tuesday for a trim.

He came to the right place — Thomas has clipped hair for many of Georgia’s top politicians. “Both senators, the governor, you name them, they all come through the barber shop,” Thomas told POLITICO after cutting Romney’s hair.

Thomas charges $16 for a trim, but he offered to give Romney a cut for free — but the well-coiffed former governor refused and gave Thomas a $20 bill, telling him to keep the change.

Romney tweeted this picture of himself on Tuesday in Atlanta and said: “Brave Tommy, taming the beast with clippers and a comb.”

Romney met with Republican legislators in Florida on Thursday, building his base and helping with fundraising projects. He endorsed Republican budget proposals, saying “Now is the time for all of us to send a powerful message that Americans will no longer tolerate the Washington culture of higher taxes, higher spending, and higher debt.” Romney finished third with 30% of the vote in the 2008 Georgia primaries, and a strong second in Florida.

Haley’s endorsement will carry significant weight given the state’s prominence in the presidential nominating process. It is slated to be one of the first four states to hold its primary.

That makes her a woman lots of people will want to get to know. And already, she’s spoken with many potential 2012 presidential candidates making swings through her state.

The most likely recipients of Haley’s endorsement would seem to be Palin and Romney, who each endorsed Haley in her long shot 2010 GOP primary campaign. Palin’s endorsement, in particular, gave Haley a shot in the arm at the exact time she needed it, and Haley endorsed Romney in the 2008 presidential campaign.

But Haley insists she’s not favoring anybody in 2012 and won’t engage in any kind of political payback.

“Not at all,” she said. “That is something that I will always be appreciative of and grateful for, but this is not a quid pro quo.”

Haley declined to criticize Romney for a health care bill he instituted as governor of Massachusetts, but she did say that “what governor Romney thought is right for Massachusetts is not right for South Carolina.”

Libertarians for Mitt is encouraging businessman, venture capitalist, and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to seek the Republican nomination for President. Mitt Romney is not a perfect libertarian, nor does he claim to be. He is an economic conservative and social moderate. But he is the most libertarian-leaning candidate who can defeat statist Obama in 2012.

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